They showed gameplay during the sony e3 press conf. so that should give you a good taste of gameplay.

I know exactly what you are referring to and that is what I'm talking about. The way those events took place was incredibly scripted and I have concerns about how that would be extrapolated out into a larger game. Some of the stuff that happened was so focused and so specific, that I don't see how it would work.

I have had my PS3 for less than a year so my suggestions are of older games.

In no order. Prices from Amazon and they seem to go up or down a few dollars so price might me differnt when you look.

Mass Effect 2 $18

Batman Arkham Asylum (Game of the Year edition) $17

Little Big Planet (Game of the Year edition) $6

Bioshock $12

inFAMOUS $24

Borderlands $20

Resident Evil 5 $15

Red Dead Redemption $20

Uncharted 1 and 2 combo pack $40 (I know you said $30 and under but I highly recommend.)

Heavy Rain: Director's Cut $20

Enslaved Odyssey to The West $13

Mass Effect 2, what would be the consequences of playing it without having played Mass Effect 1?

Also, how do Heavy Rain, Bioshock and Mass Effect play? Are they linear, mission to mission, or is there an element of freeplay? I like games like Skyrim and Red Dead where there's a whole world to do stuff in outside of the main storyline.

Heavy Rain is very diffrent then anything u have ever played so I'm gonna do my best to describe it. Its not an action game where you kill a bunch of people and they are no checkpoints are do overs. So lets say someone dies the story will adept and change based on that. They are a total of 5 diffrent endings that you will get and which one you get will depend on the choices you make.

The basic controll is very simple like you will move the trigger button or press x/o at the time you are suppose to. If you do your own research of the game be very very careful to avoid any spoilers

I played the demo, the fight was cool, but I don't think the game is for me, at least not right now. Looks like a gorgeous game that could really get good, but looking for something I can play at anytime and do random **** in. Like random dungeon raiding in Skyrim, shooting people in Red Dead, hell I even enjoyed just driving around in LA Noire.

Mass Effect 2, what would be the consequences of playing it without having played Mass Effect 1?

Also, how do Heavy Rain, Bioshock and Mass Effect play? Are they linear, mission to mission, or is there an element of freeplay? I like games like Skyrim and Red Dead where there's a whole world to do stuff in outside of the main storyline.

It should come with a comic that you watch explaining what happened in Mass Effect 1. I'm not sure if it's all ready on the disk or if it will come with a download code since I got the whole game off PSN.

It does a really good job feeling in the blanks and you even get to make some choices that will carry over to your ME2 play through.

There is an element of freeplay with ME, but not on the same level as RDR.

As for Bioshock I don't actually own it, but keep hearing good things and you can get it cheap.

I played the demo, the fight was cool, but I don't think the game is for me, at least not right now. Looks like a gorgeous game that could really get good, but looking for something I can play at anytime and do random **** in. Like random dungeon raiding in Skyrim, shooting people in Red Dead, hell I even enjoyed just driving around in LA Noire.

I may put a little extra cash forward and pick up Saints Row III.

Sounds like saints row 3 is a game u would love it's very over the top and Crazy. For example beating up people with a purple bat shaped like a male body part.

Even if u don't play mass effect 1 I'd still play the series u will be a little lost but nothing major and u will pick up on everything as time goes on. The comic doesn't come with used copy's

I have the 2nd one and liked the concept but didn't finish it. I just bought the 3rd one and while I havent played it I've watched friends play it for several hours and I can tell its much improved and on another level.